UZBEKISTAN, the most OUT OF THE WAY Country in the WORLD? – VisualPolitik EN

it’s one of the most obscure forgotten
and unknown countries in the world’s one to test this allow me to ask you three
questions one have you ever heard of us Backus dong – would you know where to
find it on a map and three could you name its capital if you answered all
three questions correctly congratulations you’re an expert in
international geography if not then worry it’s not unusual and
today you’ll have the chance to discover many more curious facts because dear
viewers today on visual politic we’re talking about his megastar it may not be very popular with tourists
but with more than 30 million inhabitants as Pakistan is the most
populous country in Central Asia it’s also incredibly young that’s young in
both senses of the words not only because one out of every three
inhabitants is under the age of fourteen but also because the country was part of
the former Soviet Union so modern as Becca Stan is only 28 years old and
Aviva it’s a remote country it’s so isolated
from the rest of the world that on top of having no access to the sea like
Liechtenstein it’s the only country on the entire planet that is surrounded by
countries that don’t have access to the sea either and it’s natives they’re
pretty obscured to Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan Turkmenistan Kazakhstan and Afghanistan
well I suppose the last one there is very well known but not for good reasons
anyway as you can see if you want to have an adventure in the 21st century
typical of an explorer get away from the known worlds and feel like David
Livingstone or even Marco Polo then you could go to us Becca Stan the focus
obviously this isn’t a travel ad so is a question why on earth you think we’re
talking about is Becca Stan on a visual politic any ideas well what if I told
you that this country is at an interesting crossroads you see as mega stone is a country
roughly the size of California but it’s only got 1.5 percent of California’s GDP
it’s a country where only 1 in every 3 inhabitants lives in a city and it has
to make a very important decision it needs to decide whether to commit itself
to a full reform program that will set it on a path to becoming a 21st century
economy once and for all or alternatively retreats back into
obscurity from the rest of the world and the what can I say here on this channel
but we love this sort of thing in this video we’re gonna see what’s happening
in Uzbekistan but first we need to introduce you to a leading character so
have you heard of Islam Karimov well listen up every hand full pockets
sometimes everything changes and yet things remain practically the same and
that’s exactly what happened in Uzbekistan in 1991 when the country
declared its independence from the crumbling Soviet Union at that time the
man on the screen now Islam Karimov was the general secretary of the communist
party in his mecca stand as well as the president of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist
Republic and of course if he had all the power why should he let any of it go and
that’s the question Karimov must have asked himself and not
surprisingly while he decided not to on April the 1st 1991 when it wasn’t yet
clear if the Soviet Union would end up disintegrating karimov saw his
opportunity and declared the independence of us Pakistan on December
the 29th of the last same year elections were held
they were so fortunate that they would make even nicolas maduro looked like a
democrats Karimov got 88 percent of the votes and from then on you know what
while the results they kept on improving asmath managed to maintain a
suspiciously high percentage of the votes in subsequent elections he only
needed to make a call to the electoral board and dictate the results of the
elections all before they were even held of course once that was done the deal it
was sealed the upshot folks is that during his 25
long years in power Islam Karimov became the master of his Pakistan he was one of
the most ruthless tyrants on the planet a guy who had no qualms saying something
publicly like this I’m prepared to rip off the heads of 200 people to sacrifice
their lives in order to preserve peace and calm in the Republic Karimov
oversaw truly terrible human rights abuses for over 25 years
as the news Beck president hugh williamson Human Rights Watch during his years in power vac media
censorship was one of these strictest in the world arrests and convictions of
journalists and social and political activists were an everyday event and the
police and Secret Service used torture as part of their normal protocol of
course as a result nobody knows Becca Stan dared to speak ill of the president
in addition Kerimov regularly used expropriation as a mechanism to
consolidate his power yeah sorry Hugo Chavez you weren’t an
innovator in their field you were kind of more like an apprentice he also
maintained a lot of the economic policies that he had learned during the
Soviet era policies such as currency controls completely artificial official
exchange rates a huge amount of state interference in the economy and more and
more stuff like that furthermore he increased the country’s isolation by
having terrible relationships with most of us Beca Stan’s and neighbors all this
explains why under his rule the majority of the population was poor
seriously poor even though as becca stan is rich in hydrocarbons and mineral
resources for example it has the third largest gold reserves in the world by
the way we can’t give you poverty statistics because the Uzbek government
officially determined by law that there is no poverty in the country and if it
doesn’t exist well then of course it can’t be measured
to give you an idea they consider that the average salary is $225 per month the
jobs that are paid according to the official regulations and of course for
under-the-table jobs it’s even lower and as you can imagine caramels family
and in a circle they’ve accumulated an immense fortune Carroll’s own daughters
have visited the most glamorous places in the world have shared experiences
with Hollywood a-listers have released albums jewelry lines perfumes they’ve
just done whatever they want really but folks perhaps the best way to see how
immensely tyrannical despotic and autocratic caramel’s government was is
by taking a look at what was happening in the cotton sector this is
traditionally the most important economic activity in the country this is because Pakistan is actually one
of the largest cotton producers in the world so can you imagine a country where
every year the leader enslaves a very significant percentage of the population
to work for him and now don’t be fooled this time we aren’t talking about taxes
we’re talking about forced labor well that’s exactly what’s happening with us
Becca Stan each year between September and November to collect the cotton
harvest the government mobilizes between 1 and 2 million people in virtual
slavery conditions to avoid going you had to send someone else in your place
or face the consequences most were public servants such as doctors and
teachers or workers from companies that were contracted by the government yep
you heard that right in fact a lot of hospitals were left
practically without doctors because the government had sent them to pick cotton
you come to work with all the makeup wearing nice clothes good shoes and the
polyclinic director runs and says I need 40 people in the field the buses outside
hurry hurry doctor Kido yadava to the New York Times
cotton is mandatory for everyone the government gave orders to pick and you
will not go against these orders if I refuse they will fire me we would lose
the bread we eat an Uzbek schoolteacher and that’s not the rest of it for many
years a lot of these workers were children who had stopped going to school
in order to pick cotton for thin governments the system it worked like this the farm
has received free labor and then sold the cotton to the government at a very
low price then the government sold it to textile companies or exported it to
produce clothes all over the world at a price far greater than what they paid
the farmers in that way cotton became one of the largest sources of government
revenue anyway as you can see Geron off he didn’t fool around perhaps another example of how despotic
and authoritarian Karimov was can be found in how he treated his own daughter
see kerim OVA was so to speak his favorite daughter
there was even speculation that she would be his heir she lived life to the
fullest surrounded by luxuries and celebrities and was very popular among
jet-setters among how many activities she was even
once ambassador to Spain well it turns out that Guerra mova caused a huge
problem for the us-backed governments because she had been dealing with
hundreds of millions of dollars for international companies in exchange for
false concessions in his Pakistan and then to top it off she argued with and
publicly confronted her mother and brother and well that was simply too
much one fine day Karen off sent the secret
police to his daughter’s house with a mission typical of Hollywood movies dressed in black they assaulted
carryovers house throwing themselves from helicopters with ropes quarter and
they locked her in a room in a mansion Karam over one of the richest women in
the world never saw her father again and nobody has seen her in public since we
know that she’s been transferred to an Uzbek prison the trial that condemned
her it was held in her own kitchen as I said before Karimov he does not
fool around surprised well despite all of this the truth is that Karimov was a
good ally of the West especially the United States and probably there we need
to hold up a second because I mean how could Western countries ally themselves
with such a tyrant well let’s just say there are two very compelling reasons on
the one hand as Pakistan is a predominantly Muslim country despite
this Karimov government was strongly opposed to radical Islamists and has
persecuted them with the same heavy hands with which it kept its people
subjugated well probably an even heavier hand actually evidently Karimov didn’t
take this line due to personal conviction religious tolerance or to
defends personal liberties but because radical Islamism represented a direct
threat to his power on the other hand Uzbekistan has a border with Afghanistan
and that’s something that the United States after Afghanistan’s invasion
could really use in fact the Pentagon installed an airbase in the south of the
country in exchange for you guessed it a financial donation to kerim officer
regime in 2002 alone the Uzbek government received 500 million u.s.
dollars you know normal international politics but folks in 2016 with Karen
auvs death this all came to an abrupt end and now the question is has a new
era really begun well listen up change or no change
check out this headline news becca stan emerges from isolation with 1 billion
dollar bond sale in hillary 2019 the government of Uzbekistan made its first
bond issue in the international markets by issuing euro bonds worth 1 billion
dollars in London anyway Watts international investors practically
snatched them out of their hands the demand was 8 times greater than the
offer the question is what investor in his or her right mind would lend money
to a government like this well dear viewer the fact is that after
caramels death his number to the Prime Minister
chef Katie Mears Kalev rose the role of president this game is no surprise to
see had been caramels Prime Minister however to everyone’s surprise miss Kiev
announced a lot of reforms that would open the country to the world for
example he improved relations with his neighbours prohibited forced labour in
the cotton harvest purged the high-ranking officials from the security
services that had led the repression freed a lot of political prisoners and
removed 18,000 people from a government blacklist that had prevented them from
travelling or being able to work just by breathing relations with their
neighbours and reopening border crossings trade between US Pakistan and
the rest of the Central Asian countries has increased by 50% since 2017 as just
two years and that’s not all most of the changes
by far have occurred in economic policy the new government’s has eliminated
capital controls and most price controls it has announced the privatization of
most public companies it has decreased tariffs and given free rein to prospect
companies to export without having to ask the government for permission or pay
them a fee they’ve also announced lower taxes for aspects and particularly for
companies that invest in the country this is basically opposite of what Matri
is done there’s a president that should take lessons from the president of
Uzbekistan and as the country’s officials have traditionally been very
corrupt the Finance Minister mr. Koo Kirov has decreed a three year
moratorium on all company inspections while the government improves its
processes and decreases bureaucracy interesting move the point is that these are all reasons
that the forecast for the country’s future have improved so much so that the
government can now issue debt in the London market without investors fleeing
now does this mean that as becca stan has being completely transformed
well no not at all is Becca Stan although better now than with Kerimov
still has a repressive government censorship still exists and free
elections are still not in sight and of course the new president still has a
huge amount of control over everything that happens in the country let’s just
say that the process has kind of just started but folks we’re just gonna have
to wait and see how things play out with time and we’re gonna be watching very
closely because you can’t say that it’s not an interesting story in fact I think
this video was very much visual politic so I really hope you enjoyed this video
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see you next time

as an Uzbek guy , we didn't live in poverty during his terms , about the capital city I'd recommend you take a closer look at the tge capital that is very beautiful with higrises and being reconstructed, it has over 2 million population that some of cities in Europe don't have , about being unknown you're totally weong , it doesn't our country is unknown it means you're not knowledge enough, take a deeper look at asia ,

I went to Uzbekistan last week as i'm doing a tour of central asia. Out of the all the stans Uzbekistan was the most frustrating terms of money, I exchanged a few Kyrgyz notes crossing the boarder ended up getting a massive pile which was annoying because I literally had to carry in my hands. People there always try to con you even when you know the price of something and its labelled they still ask for more money. Their attitudes towards travellers isn't as great as its neighbours but it has some great sites such as registan in Samarkand, bukhara and Tashkent was okay. The train system was actually very good between Uzbek and Kazakhstan.

Whnever a muslim group fight suppresive unjust govnmnt they are called radicals or terrorists. Stop the hypocrites n bigots. The West and its media machines shud be ashamed of theirselves. They are sub humans

I'm from the eastern most of China (on the coast), and my paternal ancestor came from Bukhala, Uzbekistan 800 years ago, when Samarkand and Bukhala were important cities on the fascinating silk road. I travelled through the Chinese part of the silk road, and this autumn I'm going to Uzbekistan. ❤️(Well I'm constantly travelling it's not a surprising decision of mine 😉

You are biased..he may be tirant with dubious human rights records..but that is the main reason Uzbekistan hasn't become radicalized like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Balkans, Indonesia (not there yet).

What year are you living in man? This info is way old. We as Uzbeks have just started the new history of the country and none of this info that you said is not happening now. If you wanna spread the info about the country tell more about the current situation not the history.

80 percent of the ideas are wrong. 1. People are rich.2. Country is safe not dangerous, despite of neighbors of Afghanistan and Tajikistan.3. Journalist can talk whatever they want.4. Whole country loved Islam Karimov and therefore he was always leader in selection not for the dictator.5. If you have not heard about country it is your problems guys. It is just ignorance.

British propaganda. Uzbekistan is poor,Uzbekistan have dictator,not media freedom…bla bla bla.. come on guys the best british alie is Saudi Arabia,country who slaughter journalist.What about human rights in Saudi Arabia? BTW How many homeless people you have in London ?

actually forcing the population, regardless from which field they are into basic labour tasks, sounds actually not that bad in that sense, that it prevents alot of decadency and ignorance in otherwise elitarian classes. It forces people to work together, regardless from where they are. I mean a country only works by its population working together. If we have leaders that grew up because their parents were working in politics and they were sent into political schools and never really experienced the live of the biggest part of the population they really wouldn't be great leaders. I mean ofc that a hospital ends up without doctors, or that forced labour doesn't pay off at least somehow, or that children cant go to school is ridiculous. But somehow the concept itself is not that bad if you'd make use of it considering all human rights. Allthough it'd be still very communistic. In some european countries for example you can choose between military service at the age of 18 or social services (where you work in elderly homes for low wage for 6 months up to a year) maybe something like that. No need to create artificial jobs in a completly capitalistic world to satisfy the population, i think it'd be much more fullfilling to have a system that creates actually productive jobs and projects rather than having people to work in stores that exists only because of this consumption madness. And no im not a communist at all, i'm just someone who thinks that, while the idea of capitalism itself, is the best system, there are definately state driven regulations necessary to prevent things like overly huge accumulation of wealth on individuals, unethical business practices, corruption etc…. a balance of this would be a good solution.

Every educated person who was born in the USSR (and maybe their kids – like me) have heard about Uzbekistan, can find it on a map and know their capital and probably even know people from Uzbekistan. We are not experts on International Geography. Just saying.